


Car Share - A Little Out of Sorts

by EightiesChick



Series: A Change of Destination [4]
Category: Peter Kay's Car Share (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 05:20:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15834555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EightiesChick/pseuds/EightiesChick
Summary: While John starts to put his plan in motion, Kayleigh isn't feeling her usual self.





	Car Share - A Little Out of Sorts

Twenty minutes after speaking to Dave Thompson on the phone, John arrived home, ran up to his bedroom and grabbed his dust covered suitcase from the top of his wardrobe.  
He unzipped the case and threw it on the bed so it fell open. Turning back to his open wardrobe he grabbed some shirts, casual and smart, some trousers and some tracky bottoms and folded them up as he put them in the case. After accompanying his clothes with some shoes, socks and pants, he turned back to Kayleigh’s side of the wardrobe.  
He stared at the dizzying array of coloured and print patterned clothing that stood before him.  
“What am I thinking?” He wondered. 

He was a man. He had no idea what colour top went with which pair of trousers or skirt. He sighed before he started to look through the clothes. Luckily he remembered an outfit Kayleigh had worn a few of weekends previously and hoped he was able to replicate the ensemble correctly. He packed the items in the case with his clothes and then repeated the task a couple more times, each time hoping he got it right. 

An hour or so later, John was back in his car, suitcase in the boot and Forever FM streaming through his DAB.  
He had well and truly been converted to Forever FM ever since the first day he and Kayleigh had started car sharing, but for the last half hour, while driving down the motorway, he decided that they were singling him out and targeting each song at him directly.  
He had desperately been missing Kayleigh while she had been on her Management Training course and every other song seemed to be reminding him of how much he wanted to see her. 

He had sat through Jon Secada's “Just Another Day (Without You)", Heart’s “Alone” and Natalie Cole’s “Miss You Like Crazy”, but by the time he heard the opening chords to Nilsson's ”All By Myself” John was convinced it was actually a conspiracy and Forever FM was taking the piss. Fortunately, as it was a Saturday, the songs took on a party vibe just after the 4pm news and this put John in a much more upbeat and determined mood. 

 

Kayleigh sat in the conference room of the Leicestershire Manor House Hotel, wishing the seminar would hurry up and end. It was a brief rundown on everything the delegates had been taught the previous few days. They had been given books, had done role play scenarios and Kayleigh really didn’t feel the need to go over it all. Again.

Her head was pounding. She had been feeling off colour all day. She hadn’t been sleeping. As cosy and comfortable as the bed was in the room she’d been allocated, she had become accustomed to John being with her. It was like she had never had to curl up at night by herself and the box room at her sister’s house seemed like a lifetime ago.

She was hoping the headache would disappear during her train journey home. She wanted to feel on top form when she saw John later. She stared out the window, wishing the the haze in her head would just fade.

“Ms Kitson, what do you feel you will be taking away with you from this course?”

Kayleigh, continued to stare out of the window. Oblivious to the fact that Tony, the instructor had directed the question to her. 

“Ms Kitson?” He asked once more. 

A young man in his twenties was seated in front of Kayleigh. A swattish, bookworm type who fast tracked his way onto the course after leaving university. He turned to face Kayleigh and tapped her on the arm with his pen.

“Kayleigh…” He started.

Kayleigh, startled back in to the room, starred at the young man.

“Huh, sorry, what?” She was a little dazed and beginning to feel light headed.

“What would you take away with you, from the this week?” said the young man, repeating the lecturer’s earlier question. 

“Um, the complimentary soap and shower gel?”

The other delegates in the room giggled, not entirely sure if she was being serious or trying to crack a joke. 

Kayleigh just stared bewildered.

“Um, I’m sorry, would you excuse me?”

Kayleigh got up from the chair, collected her bag, notebook and suit jacket and headed to the exit at the back of the room. She left the conference hall, closing the door behind her. She headed across the hotel’s foyer to the lift on he opposite side of the reception desk. As she pressed the button, the lift doors opened. She stepped inside, and leant against the lift wall. As the door closed behind her, despite herself, she burst into tears.

 

As the time approached 5.45pm, the delegates began to leave the conference room. The last people to leave were the male instructor, Tony and Cath Hilton, who had been running the course.  
They were discussing the situation with Kayleigh shortly before. Kayleigh had been excelling erself all week so Cath had been a little taken aback by her sudden departure. She was extremely fond of Kayleigh and she knew she had made the right choice in promoting her as she had come along in leaps and bounds. But today, she seemed to have lost a bit of her sparkle. Her bubbly, chirpy self seemed to have been deflated and she was a little worried. 

Cath concluded her conversation with Tony after agreeing to meet him for a drink in the hotel bar later that evening for the delegate's drinks. She was about to head to the lift to check on Kayleigh when, to her surprise, she saw John walking into the reception from the main entrance.

“John?” 

“Oh, hiya Cath, how’s it going? Is Kayleigh around?” He asked.

“She went back to her room about an hour ago. Has something happened?”

John looked at Cath, surprised and a little intrigued by the question. 

“What? No, why? What you on about?”

Cath wished she hadn’t said anything. 

“It’s nothing, Kayleigh left the course a little early, I was about to go check on her, I couldn’t get away any sooner.”

“Where is she? What room’s she in?”

“121.”

John stifled a small laugh. 121, that number was definitely starting to haunt him. 

“Do you want me to come up with you?

“No, it’s fine, thanks Cath.”

John headed up to the first floor via the lift. He was now a little concerned. Why would she have left early? In hindsight, maybe Kayleigh wasn’t herself. She had seemed a little over emotional when they spoke that morning he just thought it was because shewas missing him. He momentarily wondered if she was on her ladytime, but from the previous night’s discussion about what she wanted to do with him when she got home, he disregarded that thought. 

As he approached the door to room 121 he felt butterflies in his tummy at the thought of seeing her and he hoped he would be a nice surprise.

As he knocked on the door, he put on his best fake ‘posh’ voice.

“Room service madam.”

After a moment, he heard a muffled “No thank you,” from inside the room.

John had assumed that would work, so he knocked again, this time saying nothing. 

“No, really, thank you.” came the voice again from inside the room.

In the end, John relented and gave up.

“Kayleigh, it’s me.” He said, in his usual Northern tones.

Seconds later the flung open and Kayleigh flew her arms around him and started sobbing.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her as tightly as he could. 

“Hey, what’s the matter, what’s wrong?”

Kayleigh released her grip and looked up at John, mascara and make-up all over her face.

“Let’s go inside.” John said calmly, taking Kayleigh’s hand and walking her over to the bed, closing the door behind them.

As he led her to sit at the edge of the bed, he took in the surroundings. Lush purple velvet curtains, four poster super king size bed, and a little seating area next to a window which looked out onto lush green gardens. 

“Bloody hell, work paid for this? All we used to get was an overnight in a Premier Inn.”

“I can’t believe you’re here.” she said, touched. But a realisation hit her. “Oh My God, what’s happened, why are you here?”

John took one of her hands in both of his, smiling at her. 

“I’m here because I couldn’t want to wait until tonight to see you. And I’m glad I came. What’s going on?”

Kayleigh sighs. She took her hand back from John and used them both to wipe her face. And ultimately making her make-up worse. 

“I thought I was ready for this John. My heads spinning. Do you think I've made a mistake?”

“What? No, why would you even say that?”

John takes Kayleigh’s hand back into his. 

“I just, I don’t know.” She sighed. 

“You have been doing amazing. These courses are just a formality and in the real word, away from this environment, you will be back at our store. With people you know. And me. I'll be there to support you.”

Kayleigh looks up to John and smiles. 

“Thank you. I think I’m just tired. I haven’t been sleeping and I’ve had a pounding headache all day.”

“Oh sweetheart. I did think you looked a little bit peaky. I just assumed you’d been dressing up as a blackcurrant again.” 

Kayleigh gently slaps John on his arm as she giggles, remembering the black makeup which took an entire weekend to remove. John smiles back at her and leans down to kiss her, which is heartily reciprocated. A gentle kiss at first, but gradually becoming more heated. After a couple of minutes, they are bought back to reality when there is a knock at the hotel room door. 

“John, it’s Cath. I just wanted to check to see if Kayleigh was ok.”

John stands, straightening himself up, trying not to look too disheveled.  
He smiles at Kayleigh, as she sits up on the bed, and he heads to the door and opens it. 

“Hi Cath, she'll be okay. She’s got a migraine.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know she suffered from them?”

“Sometimes, not very often.”

John edges Kath to the hall and pulls the door to him so Kayleigh doesn’t hear.

“Cath, is there any chance the booking could be extended to tomorrow? I think Kayleigh might be better staying here to sleep it off and I'll take her home in the morning?”

Cath smiles.

“We’re paid up until tomorrow anyway because of the delegates drinks tonight. You just need to check out by eleven.”

“Thank Cath,” John said as he closed the door and went back into the room. 

Kayleigh was sat on a chair by the dressing table. While John had been talking Kath, she had gone to the mirror to straighten herself up and nearly fainted at the reflection looking back at her. She had grabbed the face wipes from her bag and before anything else removed the panda eyes. She was in the process of cleaning the rest of her make up off when John re-entered the room. 

“You could have told be I looked like a clown in a rainstorm.” 

“You look gorgeous. And just as gorgeous now without that make up on your face.”

Kayleigh stands up from the chair and walks over to John. 

“Right,” John began, “I have some good news and some bad news.” 

Kayleigh stopped just in front of him, worried.

“Okay go on. What’s the bad news.” 

“You have a migraine and are going to miss the delegate's drinks this evening.”

“I only have a bit of a headache and I wasn’t going to the drinks anyway. Is that it? So what’s the good news.”

“You and I have this room to ourselves and don’t have to check out until tomorrow morning.”

“That’s the good news?” Kayleigh asked as she walked the remaining steps toward John. 

John looked at her a little disappointed.

“It’s not good news?” He asked.

Kayleigh put her arms around John’s neck.

“No. It’s bloody excellent news.” She smiled as she pulled John into a heated embrace.

 

John and Kayleigh didn’t leave the hotel room at all Saturday night. And apart from opening the door a couple of times for room service and the occasional bathroom visit, they never left the bed either. 

After being reunited with each other, in more ways than one, they eventually drifted off to sleep just before midnight and they both slept better than they had in days. 

In the bed, John had his arms tightly wrapped around Kayleigh as she lay next to him in the position of the little spoon. They were both in a blissful slumber, until the telephone in the hotel room started ringing, making both John and Kayleigh start.

Kayleigh tried to lean forward to reach the phone on the bedside table, but John was holding on to her, not wanting to let her go.

“Oh, don’t move, stay here. Let it ring.”

Kayleigh stretched as far as she could and just about managed to lift the receiver from it’s cradle. 

“Hello?” She enquired, half asleep. 

“Good morning madam,” started the bright and chirpy receptionist on the other end of the phone, “this is your early morning wake up call.”

“Okay,” Kayleigh replied, dazed, before putting the phone back.

Kayleigh leans back on the bed and turns around so she is facing John. She give him a quick kiss.

“Morning you.” She smiles.

“Good morning.” John mumbles, his eyes still closed as he tries to catch forty more winks. 

Kayleigh reaches out and strokes the side of John’s face which isn’t imbedded in the Eiderdown pillow.

“Thank you.” 

“Hmm...what for?” He asks, still sleepy. 

Kayleigh smiled. “For coming here. I don’t know what was up with me yesterday. I was really out of sorts.”

John opens his eyes, looks at Kayleigh and smiles. 

“I wanted to see you.” 

“I do love you.” Kayleigh says as she leans forward and kisses John again.

“I love you too. And I have a surprise for you later.”

Kayleigh stares at John, intrigued.

“Do you?”

“I do.” John said, as if he suddenly remembered something. He threw back his side of the duvet, as if the realisation had shot into life into him. He stood up and stretched toward the ceiling as Kayleigh began to sit up in bed, watching him, confused. John began to walk, naked, across the floor to the en suite bathroom.

“Oi, Redmond, don’t think the view of your gorgeous arse is going to distract me from interrogating you when you come back." Kayleigh giggles. 

John wiggles his bottom at Kayleigh, before going into the bathroom and pushing the door to.

Kayleigh got out of the bed and put on the dressing gown which had been draped across a nearby chair. As she walked to the window, Kayleigh pulled back the curtains, expecting the sun to be shining on a brisk, dewey November morning. To her surprise, it was still pitch black outside. Kayleigh walked back to the bed and picked up the clock on the bedside table. 

6.38am it read.

“John, what are you up to?” Kayleigh wondered as sat down on the edge of the bed.


End file.
